Coach: Simley Wrestlers "Good, Not Great" in Thursday Triangular

Near the end of last season, Simley wrestling head coach Will Short And that was before they won a fourth straight Class AA state title.

"This is probably the best team we're going to see," said Short last January. "And I think next year, maybe, and there's always things that can happen, I think next year's team will be our best season ever."

So far, the 2011-2012 squad seems to be living up to that billing. The Spartans have dominated their competition in the new season, beating their first five opponents by a combined score of 265-27, and have come out of the gate with a pre-season No. 6 national ranking by Amateur Wrestling News and a familiar No. 1 Class AA ranking in the state by The Guillotine.

But after Thursday night's triangular that included wins of 52-0 against Richfield and 51-6 against host North St. Paul, Short said there was still plenty of room for improvement.

"We have some issues we still haven't worked out yet," said Short. "We're still trying to figure out who we're going to be, to be honest. Last year I think we were ahead of where we are right now. And I think that we've got some catching up to do. We've got a long way to go, and we're still trying to figure out who we're going to be."

According to Short, he'd like to see the Spartans become a top five team in the nation and compete for a fifth straight Class AA state title. But as of now, he says this year's squad is a little behind last year's pace.

"Those are all good goals and there's little stepping stones along the way that we can build on to try and get there," said Short. "Every performance is an opportunity to get better."

Despite a combined 103-6 night that included 12 pins in 20 total matches, Short was tempered in his evaluation of the evening. (View the photo gallery for individual Simley match results.)

"We had some very good performances from some guys," he said. But some things we found out, as you do when you wrestle, we've got some things to work on still. I think it was good, not great, but it's early. We're 3 1/2 weeks into the season, there's been some positive, but there's been some negative, too, so we have to work out the negative and see if we can't figure it out."

Simley will next take to the mat this Saturday with a morning dual meet at Prior Lake.

Richfield defeated North St. Paul 51-27 in their portion of the triangular.